This disclosure relates to the field of various patient care devices used in the care of critical patients. Example devices could be infant warming devices, anesthesia machines, infusion pumps, ventilators, or neonatal intensive care units. In many of these situations the situation can be one in which the care provider is required to operate in sterile conditions and is wearing sterile gloves. Such patient care devices often have alarm condition sensors that monitor certain parameters and determine when an alarm condition exists. This alarm condition may be associated with the patient or with the patient care device itself. These alarms are important to patient safety in that the caregivers must respond to satisfy the alarm condition or the alarm continues to function and alert the user. The alarms are often initially rather loud to ensure the caregiver hears them but can then be distracting as the caregiver responds to the problem indicated by the alarm. Most methods in the market require silencing of the alarm through physical contact with the user interface which can be a concern for the caregiver if a procedure is occurring in a sterile environment and they do not want to touch a non-sterile interface.
One solution in the market is to turn off the alarm through a non-contact method. This is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,437 to Mackin. But by turning off the alarm in this manner there is a risk that the alarm condition gets forgotten and not corrected, that the alarm gets erroneously turned off without the users knowledge, or that the user walks away after the procedure and forgets that the alarm is still silenced which could have patient safety ramifications.
What is needed is an alternate approach, one that reduces the nuisance level of the alarm but continues to alert the caregiver so that the alarm condition is not potentially forgotten as in other approaches.
The example that will be used for purposes of this disclosure is an infant warming device that is used to provide heat support to premature infants who cannot sustain their own body temperature. In the treatment of infants, and particularly those born prematurely, it is necessary to provide heat to the infant during the care and treatment of the infant and to minimize heat loss from the infant's body. An apparatus for providing such heat will be referred to in this disclosure as an infant warming device. In general such an apparatus comprises a flat planar surface on which the infant rests while various procedures are carried out. There are normally protective guards that surround the infant and some type of overhead heater directing radiant energy toward the infant. It should be understood that these infant warming devices might have other descriptive names, such as, for example, an infant care device, or an infant warming center, an infant incubator, or combination type device, and this disclosure anticipates any of those other names.
Although an infant warming device is being used here for illustrative purposes this disclosure anticipates that numerous other patient care devices, such as the aforementioned anesthesia machines, infusion pumps, ventilators, or neonatal intensive care units can make use of this approach.